Political Party Poop

Justice Thomas’s Remarks May Impact Race in 2008

By NICHOLAS WAPSHOTT
Staff Reporter New York Sun - Article Link

Justice Thomas, in his first public statement about the circumstances leading to his appointment to the Supreme Court, said he became the target of a political smear campaign because of his presumed beliefs about abortion and because, as a conservative African-American, he was thought to have betrayed his roots.

The vehemence of his contention that he was made the victim of false allegations to keep him from joining the court, and the clarity of his statements about the propensity for black Americans to paint themselves, and agree to be painted, as victims, is certain to raise the issue of race in a presidential election contest in which for the first time one of the front-runners, Senator Obama, is an African-American.

Justice Thomas’s remarks also will bring to the fore the complexion of the Supreme Court as a potent election issue. The suggestion by Justice Thomas, an appointee of President George H.W. Bush, that the future of Roe v. Wade was behind opposition to his Supreme Court candidacy confirms that the future direction of the court — and the future of legal abortions — will depend on who is elected in November 2008.

In an extended interview on CBS News’s “60 Minutes,” broadcast last night and tonight, to accompany his memoir, “My Grandfather’s Son,” out today, Justice Thomas explained why he believes he was accused of sexual harassment by a female colleague, Anita Hill. “The issue was abortion,” he said.

He fiercely defended his description of the Senate confirmation hearings, at which Ms. Hill presented her allegations, as “a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves.”